The western mining industry is actively integrated into the construction of a world-class salt lake industrial base.

"it is our common vision and responsibility that we will deeply develop and utilize salt lake resources, speed up the transformation of the green and low-carbon cycle, and create a high-quality development of China's mining industry." Zhang Yongli, secretary of the party committee and chairman of the Western Mining Group Co., Ltd., said in a keynote speech at the 2021 China International Mining Conference in Tianjin recently.

At present, the Western Mining Industry has thoroughly implemented the major requirement of "speeding up the construction of a world-class salt lake industrial base" put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping during his visit to Qinghai in June this year, and is based on the advantages of salt lake resources and scientific research and technology. adhere to resource-oriented, comprehensive utilization, circular development, and actively participate in the construction of a world-class salt lake industrial base. At present, the western mining industry has four salt lakes, Chaka Salt Lake, Ke Salt Lake, Tuanjie Lake and East Taijinel Lake, with salt lake reserves of 1.2 billion tons.

"with the in-depth development and utilization of salt lake resources, major breakthroughs have been made in the key technologies of extracting lithium and magnesium from salt lakes, especially using brucite, a waste from potash fertilizer enterprises in Chaerhan Salt Lake, as raw materials, and the high-purity magnesium hydroxide products produced have filled the domestic blank. Now the production capacity of 160000 tons of high-purity magnesium hydroxide has been formed, creating a new way for comprehensive utilization of salt lake magnesium resources." Zhang Yongli said. At the same time, relying on superior resources, the western mining industry strives to build a production base of one million tons of green edible salt, and makes every effort to cultivate and shape the brand of "tea card salt". The original ecological tea card salt continues to move towards the whole country.

It is understood that Qinghai Salt Lake is the lake area with the most abundant salt lake resources in China, and the salt lake type is mainly sulfate. Lithium, boron and other elements are highly enriched in some salt lake brines, and have become the largest potash fertilizer and soda ash production base in the country.

From a global point of view, salt lake magnesium resources are very rich. The reserves of magnesium chloride in the Dead Sea in Israel are 22 billion tons, and those in the Great Salt Lake of the United States are about 600 million tons. The proven reserves of magnesium salts in the Qaidam Basin in China have reached 6 billion tons, accounting for 99% of the identified reserves of magnesium salts in the country.

In order to promote the comprehensive utilization of salt lake resources, in 2006, Western Mining established Qinghai West magnesium Industry Co., Ltd., and cooperated with Central South University to explore new ways of comprehensive utilization of salt lake magnesium resources. After years of technical research and industrial chain extension, brucite was used as raw materials to produce five series of products, such as high-purity magnesium hydroxide, magnesia and fused magnesia, which filled the gap in the industry of high-end magnesium products in China. The products are widely used in chemical industry, metallurgy, aerospace and other fields.

At present, the production scale of the western magnesium industry has reached 150000 tons / year of high-purity magnesium hydroxide, 130000 tons / year of high-purity magnesium oxide, 20, 000 tons / year of high-purity ultra-fine magnesium hydroxide, 30, 000 tons / year of high-purity fused magnesia and 30, 000 tons of sintered magnesia. It also has about 25 square kilometers of magnesium-rich brine with a total reserve of more than 60 million tons. "this is the best initial raw material for the production of magnesium chemical products. At the same time, with the western magnesium industry as the center, the salt lake magnesium industry recycling industrial base has been formed in Delingha." Luo Xianping, chief expert of Western Mining Group, said.

In the next step, the western mining industry strives to achieve a production scale of 550000 tons of magnesium hydroxide during the 14th five-year Plan period, and to build the western magnesium industry into a well-known scientific and technological innovative enterprise for the development and utilization of salt lake magnesium resources in the domestic industry. it has become an internationally renowned center for the development and utilization of salt lake magnesium resources and new high-end magnesia non-metallic materials.

On the other hand, in the construction of salt lake industry, Chaka Daqing salt produced by Qinghai Salt Industry Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Western Mining, has become a leader in lake salt. "Daqing salt is produced from Chaka Salt Lake and Keke Salt Lake, one of the four pollution-free super-clean areas. Tea card Daqing salt after hundreds of millions of years of natural crystallization, pure natural, pollution-free, made through pure physical processing, without any added ingredients, in which the content of amino acids is much higher than that of sea salt, well and mineral salt. " Tan Shenglu, chairman of Qinghai Salt Industry Co., Ltd., said.

In recent years, relying on its own salt lake resources, the western mining industry has made great efforts to build a production base of millions of tons of edible salt, moving towards the whole country and the world step by step with high-quality salt lake resources and broad salt market.

Among them, Chaka Salt Lake, as a famous natural crystalline salt lake in Qaidam Basin, is an ideal edible salt, with preliminary proved salt reserves of more than 450 million tons. "in terms of the production process of tea card salt, physical processing is carried out throughout the process to maximize the original quality of green salt." Tan Shenglu said. Due to its core values such as coming from the pure area of the plateau, natural crystallization, medicinal value, natural amino acids and no anti-caking agents, tea card salt was rated as the National Geographic indication protection product in 2010.

In 2020, with the support of the western mining industry, the output, sales and profits of Qinghai salt industry reached an all-time high in the past 70 years. In the scope of edible salt business, according to the national salt reform policy, Qinghai salt industry has expanded the Internet and domestic and foreign markets, and carried out salt sales in more than 20 provinces and cities across the country, with a sales network covering 65% of the domestic provinces and cities. and exported to Japan, the United States, Singapore and other 14 regions and countries.

After years of development, the western mining industry has developed from a single lead and zinc resources development enterprise into a large enterprise group integrating six major industries: mining and smelting, salt lake chemical industry, cultural tourism, construction real estate, finance and trade, science and technology and information. and become the only China's top 500 enterprises in Qinghai Province.

"We are deeply aware that the development of green and low-carbon cycle is the fundamental prerequisite for the high-quality development of mining enterprises. Only by putting the requirements of green and low-carbon cycle through the whole process and all aspects of production and operation, and earnestly changing the mode of mining development, can we achieve higher quality, more efficient, fairer, more sustainable and safer development." Zhang Yongli said. In the future, the western mining industry will focus on the development of the three major resources of "mine, salt lake and ecology", vigorously promote the optimization of industrial structure and transformation and upgrading, and continue to build high-quality mining companies.